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Father's
Day Short
Stories for Kids
Printable Children's Literature

Father's
Day Short
Stories

The Adventures of Pinocchio - Chapter
24

Pinocchio, spurred on by the hope of
finding his father
and of being in time to save him, swam all night long.

And what a horrible night it was! It poured rain, it
hailed, it thundered, and the lightning was so bright that
it
turned the night into day.

At dawn, he saw, not far away from him, a long stretch
of sand. It was an island in the middle of the sea.

Pinocchio tried his best to get there, but he couldn't.
The waves played with him and tossed him about as if he
were a twig or a bit of straw. At last, and luckily for
him,
a tremendous wave tossed him to the very spot where he
wanted to be. The blow from the wave was so strong that,
as he fell to the ground, his joints cracked and almost
broke.
But, nothing daunted, he jumped to his feet and cried:

"Once more I have escaped
with my life!"

Little by little the sky cleared. The sun came out in
full
splendor and the sea became as calm as a lake.

Then the Marionette took off his clothes and laid them
on the sand to dry. He looked over the waters to see
whether he might catch sight of a boat with a little man
in
it. He searched and he searched, but he saw nothing except
sea and sky and far away a few sails, so small that they
might have been birds.

"If only I knew the name of this island!" he
said to himself.
"If I even knew what kind of people I would find here!
But whom shall I ask? There is no one here."

The idea of finding himself in so lonesome a spot made
him
so sad that he was about to cry, but just then he saw a
big
Fish swimming near-by, with his head far out of the water.

Not knowing what to call him, the Marionette said to him:

"Hey there, Mr. Fish, may
I have a word with you?"

"Even two, if you want," answered
the fish,
who happened to be a very polite Dolphin.

"Will you please tell me
if, on this island, there are
places where one may eat without necessarily being eaten?"

"Surely, there are," answered the Dolphin. "In
fact
you'll find one not far from this spot."

"And how shall I get there?"

"Take that path on your
left and follow your nose. You
can't go wrong."

"Tell me another thing.
You who travel day and night
through the sea, did you not perhaps meet a little boat
with
my father in it?"

"And who is you father?"

"He is the best father in
the world, even as I am the
worst son that can be found."

"In the storm of last night," answered the Dolphin, "the
little boat must have been swamped."

"And my father?"

"By this time, he must have
been swallowed by the
Terrible Shark, which, for the last few days, has been
bringing terror to these waters."

"Is this Shark very big?" asked
Pinocchio, who was
beginning to tremble with fright.

"Is he big?" replied the Dolphin. "Just
to give you an idea
of his size, let me tell you that he is larger than a five
story building and that he has a mouth so big and so deep,
that a whole train and engine could easily get into it."

"Mother mine!" cried
the Marionette, scared to death;
and dressing himself as fast as he could, he turned to
the
Dolphin and said:

"Farewell, Mr. Fish. Pardon
the bother, and many thanks
for your kindness."

This said, he took the path at so swift a gait that he
seemed to fly, and at every small sound he heard,
he turned in fear to see whether the Terrible Shark,
five stories high and with a train in his mouth,
was following him.

After walking a half hour, he came to a small country
called the Land of the Busy Bees. The streets were filled
with people running to and fro about their tasks. Everyone
worked, everyone had something to do. Even if one were
to search with a lantern, not one idle man or one tramp
could have been found.

"I understand," said
Pinocchio at once wearily,
"this is no place for me! I was not born for work."

But in the meantime, he began to feel hungry, for it
was twenty-four hours since he had eaten.

What was to be done?

There were only two means left to him in order to get
a
bite to eat. He had either to work or to beg.

He was ashamed to beg, because his father had always
preached to him that begging should be done only by the
sick or the old. He had said that the real poor in this
world,
deserving of our pity and help, were only those who, either
through age or sickness, had lost the means of earning
their
bread with their own hands. All others should work, and
if they didn't, and went hungry, so much the worse for
them.

Just then a man passed by, worn out and wet with perspiration,
pulling, with difficulty, two heavy carts filled with coal.

Pinocchio looked at him and, judging him by his looks
to be a kind man, said to him with eyes downcast in shame:

"Will you be so good as
to give me a penny,
for I am faint with hunger?"

"Not only one penny," answered the Coal Man. "I'll
give
you four if you will help me pull these two wagons."

"I am surprised!" answered
the Marionette, very much offended.
"I wish you to know that I never have been a donkey,
nor have I ever pulled a wagon."

"So much the better for you!" answered
the Coal Man.
"Then, my boy, if you are really faint with hunger,
eat two slices of your pride; and I hope they don't
give you indigestion."

A few minutes after, a Bricklayer passed by, carrying
a pail full of plaster on his shoulder.

"Good man, will you be kind
enough to give a penny to
a poor boy who is yawning from hunger?"

"Gladly," answered the Bricklayer. "Come
with me and carry
some plaster, and instead of one penny, I'll give you five."

"But the plaster is heavy," answered Pinocchio, "and
the
work too hard for me."

"If the work is too hard
for you, my boy, enjoy your yawns
and may they bring you luck!"

In less than a half hour, at least twenty people passed
and Pinocchio begged of each one, but they all answered:

"Aren't you ashamed? Instead
of being a beggar in the streets,
why don't you look for work and earn your own bread?"

Finally a little woman went by carrying two water jugs.

"Good woman, will you allow
me to have a drink from
one of your jugs?" asked Pinocchio, who was burning
up
with thirst.

"With pleasure, my boy!" she
answered, setting the
two jugs on the ground before him.

When Pinocchio had had his fill, he grumbled,
as he wiped his mouth:

"My thirst is gone. If I
could only as easily get rid of my hunger!"

On hearing these words, the good little woman immediately
said:

"If you help me to carry
these jugs home, I'll give you a
slice of bread."

Pinocchio looked at the jug and said neither yes nor no.

"And with the bread, I'll
give you a nice dish of
cauliflower with white sauce on it."

Pinocchio gave the jug another look and said neither yes
nor no.

"And after the cauliflower,
some cake and jam."

At this last bribery, Pinocchio could no longer resist
and said firmly:

"Very well. I'll take the
jug home for you."

The jug was very heavy, and the Marionette, not being
strong enough to carry it with his hands, had to put it
on his head.

When they arrived home, the little woman made Pinocchio
sit down at a small table and placed before him the
bread, the cauliflower, and the cake. Pinocchio did not
eat;
he devoured. His stomach seemed a bottomless pit.

His hunger finally appeased, he raised his head to thank
his kind benefactress. But he had not looked at her long
when he gave a cry of surprise and sat there with his eyes
wide open, his fork in the air, and his mouth filled with
bread and cauliflower.

"Why all this surprise?" asked
the good woman, laughing.

"Because--" answered
Pinocchio, stammering and stuttering,
"because--you look like--you remind me of--yes, yes,
the same voice, the same eyes, the same hair--yes, yes,
yes, you also have the same azure hair she had--Oh, my
little Fairy, my little Fairy! Tell me that it is you!
Don't make me cry any longer! If you only knew! I have
cried so much, I have suffered so!"

And Pinocchio threw himself on the floor and clasped
the knees of the mysterious little woman.

This story comes from The Adventures of Pinocchio, by
C. Collodi [Pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini]